Issue Life-In-A-Box

Summary

Life-In-A-Box asks what would happen if people never had to leave their homes. Drawing on space research, self-sufficient homes would provide life's essentials and ease the burden on the planet. More than 2 billion people lack adequate food, one in four lack safe drinking water and 655 million lack electricity. Despite falling fertility in some places, the population is expected to peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s, meaning decades of rising demand for food, water and energy and a need for resilience against pandemics, climate disasters and other disruptions. Such homes could act as survival capsules and cut demand on resources and transport, but they risk social isolation, fractured communities and greater exposure of closed-loop systems to physical and cyber attack.